This invention relates to a cabinet including a plurality of drawers and latch structure which prevents one drawer from being opened when another drawer is already opened.
There have been such cabinets in the marketplace and described in prior patents. In these cabinets, a drawer interlatch mechanism prevents more than one drawer from being opened at any one time. In other words, once one drawer is opened, the interlatch mechanism prevents the other drawers from being opened. The opening of two drawers could move the center of gravity forward sufficiently to tip the cabinet. One such prior structure includes a vertical latch bar at the rear of the cabinet which is rotatable to engage and disengage with an associated clip on each drawer. When a drawer is opened, it automatically moves the latch bar to its latch position to prevent other drawers from being opened. As the opened drawer is closed, it engages the latch bar and rotates it to the unlatch position to enable the closed drawers to then be opened.
The drawers are mounted for sliding movement between opened and closed positions. However, because of tolerances and the like, the drawers tend to have some side-to-side movement as they are closed. As a result, the drawer clip may not be precisely aligned with the latch bar to actuate same.